This weekend saw thousands join an anti-government protest in Prague
calling for an end to the current government and its reform policies,
which
critics call unnecessarily strict. The trade union-led demonstration saw
as
many as 100,000 people come out - with the promise that unless the
government paves the way for early elections, protests will only be more
intense.

Photo: Barbora Kmentová
In a month of low points for Petr Nečas’s crisis-racked government
Saturday offered little respite, as around 100,000 people from all over
the
country descended on Prague’s Wenceslas Square, ready to make heard
their
deep discontent. The rally, estimated by union leaders as the “biggest
in
the country since 1989”, kicked off under the slogan “Stop vládě”
– “Stop the government”, with many beating drums, shaking
rattles and blowing plastic trumpets.

Many rose early in the morning to travel across the country by bus or
train to reach the capital, determined to be heard. Echoed throughout were
accusations that the government’s wide-reaching reforms were exceedingly
harsh and that the government was saving at the expense of the weakest
groups in society: the elderly, the disabled, and the poor. Václav
Krása,
the chairman of the National Council of People with Disabilities, was one
of many to speak:

Václav Krása, photo: CTK“Finance Minister Kalousek: it’s necessary to look for funds
where
they already exist – not among the disabled, pensioners and families
with
children!”

Union representatives, meanwhile, warned that if the government does not
heed its call and pave the way for early elections – and certainly there
has been no indication it will do so (having apparently weathered the
break-up of the outgoing party Public Affairs and retained enough mandates
to remain in power) the next time the unions’ approach will be even
tougher. Bohumír Dufek, the head of the independent trade unions, was a
key figure at Saturday’s demonstration:

“We want new elections! If we don’t see new elections, then, a
general
strike. We will paralyse this country until the government falls!”

Photo: Barbora Kmentová
The prime minister responded to the massive protest by saying he fully
respected people’s right to voice their opinion but charged the event
had
been politicised. He repeated it was in the country’s best interest for
the government to continue in its policies, a view shared by his finance
minister, Miroslav Kalousek, who stressed that the government’s
austerity
measures could not be put off:

“To want us to drop austerity measures is the same as leaving a
sick
tooth in the mouth long enough for the entire gums to be
infected.”

Miroslav Kalousek, photo: CTK
The question is whether the message, at this point, is still getting
across: following the most recent government crisis, in which the Public
Affairs party effectively imploded, polls suggested that most of the
public
would welcome early elections. Discontent and disappointment are riding
high not only on the political Left but also among many on the Right;
buffeted by repeated scandal and crisis and now looking far less stable in
the Chamber of Deputies, it is questionable just how long the government
will be able to trudge ahead and whether at this point it can do anything
at all to change its increasingly negative image.